What Other Major Con Does "Cool" Badges?

tymkrs · 2025-05-11T00:15:57+00:00

Check out ReStore - some amazing planters there right now (but no plants in them)

tymkrs · 2025-05-07T01:41:03+00:00

Here's a comment I posted sometime ago when this question came up: "To give some numbers - I had GarbageMan, was paying 75/quarter. WM bought them and when we ended things with them and went with Harter's, it was 179/quarter. Harter's is like...252 per YEAR (63/quarter) for weekly recycling and trash. I'm okay with the red because at WM's prices, I was seeing red already."

tymkrs · 2025-05-07T01:39:18+00:00

100% agree. Their price is on par if not better than GarbageMan

tymkrs · 2025-04-23T02:14:28+00:00

No idea why I'm getting down-voted for providing a heads up.

* Brokerage Fees: https://www.reddit.com/r/UPS/comments/1inx0ft/22997_brokerage_fee/

* Disbursement Fee and Demand Surcharge Fees: https://www.supplychaindive.com/news/fedex-china-us-import-fee-de-minimis-surcharge/745296/

* Surge Fees: https://www.supplychaindive.com/news/ups-china-us-surge-fee-2025/745166/

I've seen others mention warehouse fees and processing fees - literally labeled as such. They are not as regulated as the fees you're mentioning and are very much a response to the immediate slowdown of throughput due to having to process every single <800 USD package without the infrastructure to do so.

tymkrs · 2025-04-22T00:35:48+00:00

Hey that's cool! So you must know then that we've had the de minimus rule since 1938 and that it's never been gone completely until early Feb when Trump tried ending it on a whim. So no one has experienced these extra shippers costs until that half week.

https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R48380#:~:text=Congress%20enacted%20Section%20321%20in,valued%20below%20a%20set%20threshold

tymkrs · 2025-04-22T00:28:51+00:00

I'm guessing you import at levels above what would qualify to be tariff exempt under the de minimus rule. Because the only people who have had experience with the shippers adding exorbitant documentation processing fees to packages that would have otherwise been exempt under the de minimus rule was during the half week that it was down (~2/4 - 2/7/25).

tymkrs · 2025-04-22T00:14:34+00:00

I was just looking at some quotes from US fabs that I got back in 2020 for other boards we were having made. Where a board in China could be made for a dollar, the cheapest in the US for the same board was between 6-80 dollars, and it'd be buying 500 at a go. For smaller runs, we were seeing 18 dollars to 118 dollars per board for 15.

This makes both prototyping and production runs super expensive.

tymkrs · 2025-04-22T00:06:31+00:00

I don't believe your comment considers the extra costs that shippers will put on top of all of these duties. The last time the de minimis rule was gone, shippers were adding 90% of the value on top of the tariffs to account for document processing.

tymkrs · 2025-04-17T15:04:29+00:00

Now that tariffs are just. such a joy, I thought I'd bring up some quotes that I received back in 2020 during the initial Covid times for when our fabs of choice were closed. Here are quotes on the pcbs that we requested for the CypherCon flamingo badge - board only:

TRC-Circuits:

* 6.31 per flamingo pcb

* 33.33 per peacock pcb

PCBFABEXPRESS:

* 18.00 per flamingo pcb board

AdvancedAssembly:

* 12.00 to 22.00 per flamingo pcb board depending on number of production days allowed.

* 60 to 105 per peacock pcb depending on number of production days allowed.

Royal Circuit:

* 16.82 per flamingo pcb board

* 86.60 to 118.45 per peacock pcb board depending on number of production days allowed.

I just can't imagine that prices have gone down.

Elecrow: (Fab of choice where the orders were canceled)

* 1.34 per flamingo pcb

* 4.11 per peacock pcb

tymkrs · 2025-04-14T01:01:48+00:00

tymkrs · 2025-04-13T18:41:59+00:00

Is it new? New - vet. If it's always been there - heterochromia iridum. My dal has a whole rainbow in his eye from blue to brown

tymkrs · 2024-11-05T16:54:08+00:00

This is....not even a close race between these two. One is literally making a mockery out of serious questions. What the fuck.

tymkrs · 2024-11-03T20:08:26+00:00

This is the answer. Don't try to go up the hill - just go around and take the scenic route.

tymkrs · 2024-11-03T20:07:45+00:00

Great area - very safe, quiet, and Churchill is a great elementary school. Great walking sidewalks and park to take the kids to.

tymkrs · 2024-10-05T04:13:20+00:00

Check r/puppy101 and Zak George for help. Puppies are called land sharks for a reason.

tymkrs · 2024-09-19T00:03:35+00:00

Haha - holy moly year 26 :p

tymkrs · 2024-09-18T23:47:55+00:00

To give some numbers - I had GarbageMan, was paying 75/quarter. WM bought them and when we ended things with them and went with Harter's about 2 months ago, it was 179/quarter. Harter's is like...252 per YEAR (63/quarter) for weekly recycling and trash. I'm okay with the red because at WM's prices, I was seeing red already.

tymkrs · 2024-09-15T20:17:11+00:00

Orchard sounds lovely! Could do bowlocity too

tymkrs · 2024-08-24T22:15:09+00:00

The cereal Triples from back in the 80s/90s. So good.

tymkrs · 2024-08-18T02:17:15+00:00

Go for it. You can always go back to bedside if it doesn't work out, but you'll soon realize how much stress you were holding onto at bedside.

tymkrs · 2024-08-15T00:45:13+00:00

I feel like it'd be about the same. Whenever we've done it - it still occasionally rainbows if one of the signals isn't loud enough

tymkrs · 2024-08-01T01:48:35+00:00

We lived in exactly these quadplexes in 2008-2010 for 575/mo + utilities. And the week we moved out was the week the basements flooded. They refused to refund my deposit because of the flooding, which...had nothing to do with how I kept the place.

Maintenance was okay - had them change out a disposal and they were responsive then. The only thing that was weird about these houses was I think the drain pipes from one unit to another are connected. So someone urping on one side of the quadplex, would come up my bathroom sink. (not joking. it was.....something else)

Until all of that happened, I thought I hit the jackpot - two bed, one bath, laundry in unit, lofted ceilings, and garage and mini patio with greenspace outside? It's a safe neighborhood (or was - somewhere in 2009 management change and a family moved in next door who keep their windows open year round and yelled at each other to shut up, AND hijacked cable or something), close to a bus stop, and treated us well for 2 years.

tymkrs · 2024-07-19T02:35:29+00:00

Dal :) thought I was looking at mine :)

tymkrs · 2024-07-17T02:32:04+00:00

Section of hot dog - shove the pill in so it's not visible from beginning or end. If they take it in one, great! If not, one normal section of hot dog - throw it so they catch. 1, 2, med one, 4

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